Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 110, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 May 1919 — HUNS LAY TRAPS FOR YANK MONEY [ARTICLE]

HUNS LAY TRAPS FOR YANK MONEY

German Is Making the Best of the Business of Occupation. - COBLENZ LIKE AMERICAN CITY Bootblack Stands, “Photos on Buttons While You Wait," and “German in 20 Lessons" Among Lures Which Get American Money. Coblenz. —Coblenz is beginning to look as American as Milwaukee, and with each additionalday of occupation the old burg seems to acquire more American touches—particularly since 2,000 doughboys are blowing in daily on leave, to say nothing of the permanent American garrison of approximately 13,000, and the beaucoup officers in transit\q and from France or just dropping in from the provinces, the bridgehead and the Hinterland, for a taste of metropolitan high life. Coblenz, with a native population of 65,000, lias a permanent and floating American population of at least 20,000; and as the American soldier is very much in evidence, out to see and do everything he can and some things he can’t, the unreasonable pictorial impression is unescapable that we own the town. Which we do. The Teuton, with an ineradicable elementary business shrewdness, is making the' best of the business of occupation by catering to the big purchasing power Qf the American soldier in every conceivable ingenious way, and you note evidences on every hand that the commercially live German in Coblenz is getting his full share of the new prosperity springing from American dollars, or their equivalent in francs and paper marks. “Fashionable Shines." A local Teuton genius, for Instance, discovered for the first time that doughboys would part with money for having their shoes shined, and now at least a dozen shoe-shining qjnporia have blossomed out in Coblenz and are prospering mightily. The curious fact is that until the coming of tl»p Amerlkaners bootblacks were unknown in Germany, likewise public bootblacking stands on street corners and shoe-shining establishments generally. “ American prosperity, too, came to a German family which set up a large “umbrella” in the market place of Coblenz, and under this shelter proceeded to operate one of those “photos on buttons” cameras while you wait. A good-natured crowd of doughboys is always'hanging around this open air es-

tablishment In fair weather waiting their turn to get their photos on buttons or postcards at five marks per dozen. German photographers generally are prospering, and making a determined bid for the doughboy business/ As another commercial novelty in Coblenz you note that several vacant stores have been turned into shooting galleries and are drawing a respectable doughboy patronage. One such shooting gallery on the Rhine Strasse advertises in the window a “Prize Shooting.” The prize competition costs the doughboy 20 cents a shot; there are numbered prizes and you get whatever number corresponds to your score when you quit. If you score 35 Hits you can select any prize in the establishment. If you are out merely for target practice, with no ambition to win a prize, you can blaze away for 10 pfennigs a shot—or, say, a shade more than one cent. More elaborate is a newly opened German shooting gallery in the Lehr Strasse. Here you find automatons and elaborate picture targets that are set in motion when you hit the bull’seye. Also, there are nickel-in-the-slot picture machines and musical traps for small coins. This establishment, particularly at night, is crowded with doughboys; few male natives stray in. German women found it an attractive resort for a while, but now a sign in the window warns them that “Women without male companions are not allowed within.” Many shops Wave appealing English signs in their windows. Some of .them confidently assert that “English Spoken” is within. German vendors of picture post cards and souvenirs continue to do a particularly thriving A shop in the “Coblenzer Hos,” fronting the Rhine, for instance, advertises “Twenty Views of the Rhine Here-for Sale, .3 Marks.” v

Despite the anti-fraternization rule, many German booksellers guessed, and guessed right, that numerous American soldiers would pay real money to pick up a smattering of conversational German; andJ in all bookshops you now find pamphlets teaching German in 20 lessons, pamphlets of useful German phrases, and the like. One sign in a bookshop window advertises “The German Interpreter. Conversation With Pronunciation for British and American Soldiers.”